


Night shift

by jjungwoo



Category: NCT (Band), SM Rookies
Genre: AU, Awkward Conversations, M/M, another fic written in the middle of the night wow, at least it's cute, like super awkward but still cute tho, probably too cute idk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-14
Updated: 2017-06-14
Packaged: 2018-11-14 04:57:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11200914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jjungwoo/pseuds/jjungwoo
Summary: In which Jungwoo and Yukhei are stuck together on a night shift, Jungwoo makes bad poems and Yukhei is mainly just tired but they still kind of fall in love





	Night shift

**Author's Note:**

> i do not know where this idea came from?? but i wrote it?? it's cute so like, enjoy~  
> (not beta read, english is not my first language)

Before 10pm  
Yukhei hates night shifts. Well, he doesn’t really like his work in general but night shifts are just the worst. He’s not working at a 24hr convenience store out of fun, it’s mainly because he’s a broke college student and needs the money, typical cliché, you could say. It’s not that his job is incredibly hard or his boss is terrible or his co-workers are annoying, it’s just so boring. Yukhei never knew doing nothing for hours on end could be exhausting. But that’s exactly what night shifts are, 8 hours of staring at his phone and failing to make small talk with whoever is stuck with him in the store that night. Eight long hours of wanting to go home and sleep, eight hours spent wondering why 8 hours are so much longer when the sun has set and there’s nothing to do. eight hours of staring at the clock as if that would make the minutes pass faster. eight hours Yukhei could spend sleeping. He likes to have his sleep.  
This night starts off no different than any other night shift, he arrives at the store ten minutes to ten, puts on the terribly ugly uniform jacket, makes himself a cup of coffee and waits for his partner in suffering to arrive. It’s five minutes to ten when a boy he’s never seen before stumbles into the break room, hair dishevelled and pink dusted onto his cheeks. He’s breathing fast, his eyes dart around nervously until they fall on Yukhei in the corner. He catches his breath and manages a smile.  
‘hey’  
he says. Yukhei returns the greeting, still a little confused as to who the boy is.  
‘ah. My name’s Jungwoo, I’m doing the night shift with you today’  
the boy introduces himself. Yukhei nods.  
‘I’m Yukhei. You’re new here, aren’t you?’  
‘yes, I just started last week.’  
Jungwoo replies. His breathing has normalized and the pink disappeared from his cheeks.   
‘well it’s not that much fun’  
Yukhei says. Jungwoo laughs a little.  
‘night shifts are never fun’  
he states, then goes to put on his own ugly uniform jacket. The sleeves are too long for him, it probably hasn’t been adjusted yet since he’s so new. Yukhei thinks it’s cute though.  
10pm to midnight  
Jungwoo spends the first hour of the shift staring at his phone. He frowns, his forehead forming little wrinkles and types into his phone in an inhumane speed.  
‘is your girlfriend missing you?’  
Yukhei teases. Jungwoo snorts and lifts his head to look at Yukhei.  
‘No. It’s a group for an assignment, looks like no one besides me has done their part and it’s due today so they have about…90 minutes to finish it’  
he explains and Yukhei lets out an understanding sigh.  
‘A girlfriend missing you would be better than that huh’  
Jungwoo shakes his head, still furiously typing and mumbles something Yukhei doesn’t understand. He decides to let him handle the crisis alone and scrolls through his Instagram feed for the next hour or so. There’s exactly one customer in the two hours, a young woman buying a lifetime supply of instant noodles. Nothing too odd.  
Midnight to 1am  
A few minutes after midnight Jungwoo joins Yukhei at the register. He hands him a cup of coffee and hops onto the counter so he’s now facing him.  
‘did you finish your assignment?’  
Yukhei asks. Jungwoo nods, rolling his eyes. He takes a sip out of his own coffee cup and frowns when it burns his tongue. Yukhei gives him a worried look to which Jungwoo replies with a small smile. He looks so much prettier when he smiles than when he’s frowning at his phone.  
‘What’s your major?’  
Yukhei asks, he wishes he could think of better topics but he’s not exactly the best at conversations. Jungwoo doesn’t seem to mind as he goes into detail about his classes and professors and the other students. His major is literature and it surprises Yukhei a little because Jungwoo’s first expression had absolutely nothing of a literature major.  
‘It’s because I’m not wearing my glasses’  
Jungwoo jokes.  
‘you need glasses?’  
Yukhei asks.  
‘no, I wear them to look more like a literature major’  
Jungwoo says then laughs when he sees Yukhei’s face.  
‘I’m kidding. Yes, I need them, but I prefer contacts’  
He says and Yukhei once again wishes he was better at conversations and could say something funny to not seem totally stupid.  
‘So what’s your major?’  
Jungwoo asks, not phased at all by Yukhei’s terrible conversation skills. Yukhei does his best to match up to Jungwoo’s enthusiastic explanations.  
‘you said I don’t look like a literature major but you sure don’t look like a math major either’  
Jungwoo muses. Yukhei shrugs.  
‘what major do I look like I have?’  
‘like, something sports. You look like someone on a basketball scholarship’   
Jungwoo says and Yukhei can’t help but laugh.  
‘I suck at basketball the most out of any sport’  
he tells Jungwoo who looks surprised but eventually joins in the laughter.  
There are no customers that hour.  
1am to 2am  
Jungwoo gets a call at around 1:15am. He rolls his eyes as he picks up. Yukhei can’t really understand what the female voice at the other end is saying but Jungwoo assures her that he’s fine and will be home right after his shift ends. Jungwoo hangs up and gives Yukhei and apologetic look.  
‘sorry, my sister is a little overprotective’  
he says. Yukhei shakes his head.  
‘No problem’  
‘No girlfriend, no problem’   
Jungwoo mumbles and Yukhei stares at him.  
‘wow, what a great literature major you must be’  
he teases and Jungwoo starts laughing so hard he chokes on his own spit. Yukhei hits his back until he can breathe again. Jungwoo is still laughing when the only customer of the hour enters, a man in a suit, looking like he hasn’t slept in several days, he buys five cans of energy drinks and a snickers. Jungwoo ducks under the counter as the man comes in, and Yukhei can hear him laughing in front of his legs, which makes him want to laugh too. The man probably thought he was laughing at him. As soon as he leaves Yukhei sits down to laugh with Jungwoo on the floor. Things are always funnier at 2am than they would be at 2pm.  
2am to 3am  
Yukhei dozes off for a while and only wakes up because Jungwoo very loudly threatens to pour hot coffee over him if he doesn’t move his ass from the floor that he’s trying to clean.  
‘Why on earth are you even cleaning right now?’  
Yukhei mumbles as he sits on the counter instead, giving Jungwoo room enough to go over the floor with the ugly old mop they have.  
‘trying to stay awake’  
Jungwoo simply says and goes off to clean the rest of the store. Yukhei watches him hum along to the songs on the radio that he must’ve turned on for the next 30 minutes. Jungwoo cleans more efficiently than anyone in that store has ever done, and Yukhei would be impressed if he thought cleaning was important. But he didn’t so he’s just amazed at Jungwoo’s determination.  
‘You know, you can take a nap if you want’  
he shouts through the store but Jungwoo on the other hand shakes his head. Yukhei dozes off again. No customers wake him up.  
3am to 4am  
Jungwoo throws a bag of chips at Yukhei with the words  
‘eat these and stay awake with me’  
Yukhei opens the bag and hands it back to Jungwoo who’s sitting on a chair he must’ve brought from the break room. There’s a new cup of coffee next to Yukhei as well. Jungwoo must really hate being the only one awake.  
‘Thanks’  
Yukhei says but Jungwoo shakes his head.  
‘Nothing to thank me for’  
They eat their chips in silence until Jungwoo gets bored and opens a game on his phone. He sits onto the counter next to Yukhei and they fail at answering questions about history for a while. Jungwoo leans his head on Yukhei’s shoulder and Yukhei hates how much he likes it.  
‘How old are you’  
He asks, just to break the silence that had settled upon the store.  
‘19’  
Jungwoo says.  
‘oh. All this time I thought you were younger than me’  
Yukhei mumbles and Jungwoo lifts his head off his shoulder.  
‘you mean you’re younger than me?’  
‘mhm. 18’  
Yukhei says and Jungwoo mumbles something about the youth of today just being too damn tall.  
‘just because you’re short’  
‘I’m not short you’re just too tall’  
‘don’t worry, I bet tons of girls find short guys cute’  
‘I’m not even into girls’  
Jungwoo scrunches up his nose when he realises what he said.  
‘oh’  
is all Yukhei says. And then:  
‘so really, no girlfriend no problem huh’  
Jungwoo gives him a look of disbelief before hitting his shoulder. But Yukhei can see him laughing.  
‘no boyfriend, yes problem’  
Jungwoo says and Yukhei would laugh but somehow he’s glad Jungwoo is single.  
‘don’t worry, tons of guys also like short guys’  
Jungwoo grins.  
‘I know. What about you? No boyfriend no problem? Oh, hey I just quoted that song right for the first time’  
‘No boyfriend, maybe a problem’  
Yukhei mumbles and Jungwoo looks at him.  
‘no girlfriend for either of us then I guess’  
and with that they change the topic to tomatoes because Jungwoo thinks it’s hilarious that they’re considered fruits. No customers come to interrupt their conversation.  
4am to 5am  
Yukhei was expecting this point to come, Jungwoo has had too much caffeine. He’s composed not one, not two but three poems about outsider tomatoes who are sad because they’re not like the other fruits, one poem about how strawberries are totally evil because they’re not really fruits and also because he’s allergic to them, and another poem about neighbourhood cats not shutting up. Yukhei is close to knocking him out.  
‘Jungwoo I swear, I believe you that you’re a literature major now, you can stop being poetic’  
Jungwoo replies with a fake sigh.  
‘My art is as underappreciated as my beauty’  
he says and Yukhei laughs.  
‘you’re pretty though’  
he says and Jungwoo looks at him, eyes big and dark.  
‘thank you’  
he replies, then turns his head back to the ceiling and declares that he’s going to dedicate an entire poem book to Yukhei for complementing his humble appearance.  
‘You just said beauty two seconds ago, now it’s humble, you’re really indecisive’  
Yukhei jokes.  
‘poetry is not that simple, there is no one thing that is just one thing’  
Jungwoo says. Yukhei starts to wonder if he smoked something while he was dozing off.  
‘Please start talking when you can think straight again’  
Jungwoo laughs at that.  
‘I could never talk again then’  
Yukhei buries his face in his hands. He hates night shifts. He forces Jungwoo to drink some water and apparently it works because Jungwoo stops making bad poems and just sits on the counter swinging his legs back and forth.  
‘I think you’re pretty too’  
he says after a while and Yukhei knows he’s blushing but Jungwoo has his eyes closed so he can’t see it anyway.  
There’s three customers this time, a group of teenage boys who looked like they stayed up the whole night playing video games, they buy junk food and a carrot, Yukhei doesn’t question what they need the carrot for.  
5am to 6am  
‘one hour left’  
Yukhei announces when the clock hits 5am. Jungwoo lets out a sigh.  
‘I think I can never do a night shift again’  
he says. Yukhei hops onto the counter next to him and nudges him with his shoulder.  
‘my first night shift I fell asleep in the middle of the candy aisle and only woke up when someone accidentally stepped on me so you’re doing pretty good’  
he assures and Jungwoo laughs because, as he says, falling asleep in the candy aisle is such a Yukhei thing.  
‘You don’t even know me’  
Yukhei says. Jungwoo nods.   
‘I’ll get to know you. This sure won’t be our last shift together.’  
he announces and Yukhei doesn’t know why he’s happy at that thought.  
They sit on the counter for most of the hour, until at 5:39am a young woman and her child come in to buy a sandwich and some milk. Jungwoo waves the kid goodbye and Yukhei smiles because it’s pretty cute. But he’s tired, anything is probably cute to him right now.  
He stands behind the counter and notes down the amount of money for the following shift workers, Jungwoo has reclaimed his place on top of the counter and watches him.  
‘You know’  
he starts. Yukhei nods without raising his eyes.  
‘When I said I’ll get to know you I was thinking more like; do you want to go on a date with me’  
Jungwoo says and that makes Yukhei look up so fast his neck cracks a little. Jungwoo is sitting on the counter, his cheeks pink like when Yukhei first saw him, his face tired, purplish eyebags noticeable under his beautiful eyes and Yukhei thinks he’d love to go on a date with him.  
‘yeah’  
he says and Jungwoo seems surprised.  
‘really? Even though I make bad poems in the middle of the night?’  
Yukhei shrugs.  
‘I think they’re cute. So yeah.’  
‘oh’  
Jungwoo motions for Yukhei’s phone and types his number in.   
‘call me then’  
he says, just as one of the workers for the early shift walks in.   
‘Off the counter, Jungwoo’  
he says and Jungwoo complies with a roll of his eyes. Yukhei thinks it’s cute.  
The clock hits 6am and they leave the store, going off in different directions, Yukhei to the bus stop, Jungwoo to the subway station.  
Yukhei looks at the new number in his phone and smiles. Maybe night shifts aren’t that bad after all.

**Author's Note:**

> if you made it this far thanks for reading, i hope you liked it~~  
> leave a comment bc it gives me motivation to write more disgustingly cute fics lmao


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